Vulnerable Heroes
by Akira Cat
Summary: "All I'm saying Duck is that you can't keep taking these dangerous risks and expect everything to be okay because you'll never know when one day, we could end up in a dilemma where we can't escape alive no matter what we try to do to survive!" "Do you think I don't know that?" Those words will haunt the other five Loonatics when they come across the reason why Duck shouted that.
1. A Devastating Discovery

None of the six Loonatics spoke on the way back to headquarters from another successful mission. They knew from Ace was absolutely livid just by looking at his clenched hands and agitated expression on his face. Admittedly, Duck knew it was his actions that made the hare feel that way; all he did was charge at the super villain with his flaming orbs at the ready when Ace strictly commanded everyone to stay in formation. In the mallard's opinion, he didn't do anything wrong. The villain was apprehended in the end and if they hesitated with keeping their distance from the criminal's offending laser projectile attacks any longer, more buildings would have turned to rubble and even more innocent citizens would have either wound up injured or worse. Never mind the fact that the Loonatics saved the city once again, instead of returning for congratulations and celebration, Duck waited for his execution in form of a lecture on teamwork and obeying orders on the battlefield.

Once they finally returned to their residence, Ace broke the silence after everyone entered the living area and immediately turned his glare to the orange and black uniformed mallard.

"What the hell were you playing at Duck!?" He barked disregarding the fact the rest of the Loonatics were also present. "I specifically said everyone stay back and shoot at the guy but oh no! Not the amazing Danger Duck! You deliberately disobeyed me and rushed in there in an attempt to get him yourself! Did you forget about the last lecture I gave you about the dangers of taking anyone on by yourself!? Especially someone who has superpowers like us!?"

Duck crossed his arms and let out a growled exhale. "If you try to take on the bad guy by yourself without thinking, you're not only risking your own life but the lives of others whether they be your team mate or innocent citizens. Something along those lines?" He recited without an ounce of remorse to an aggravated Ace.

"So why did you on purposely ignore what I was saying and did your own thing!?" The pitch on his voice went higher. "For crying out Duck, I've given you this lecture a hell of a lot more recently and I'm tired of having to repeat it over and over again!"

"Oh come Ace! It's not like we failed to catch the bad guy and lock him away!" Duck flicked his hands in front of him. "Besides, he would have done a lot more damage to the city and hurt a lot more people if I hadn't had intervened when I did."

"That still doesn't give you any reason to go against my orders," Ace exclaimed. "Take last week; we had to prevent a guy from pulling the trigger on an unlucky bystander in a bank robbery gone wrong. We could have easily dealt with the situation in a more civil way but then you had to teleport on him and try to snatch the gun off him. Because of your actions, we could have been dealing with a homicide instead of an attempted robbery."

"Well what did you expect? Did you think they'd willingly let the hostage go and put both hands up in surrender after a pain-staking long time of you trying to reason with him?" Duck challenged. "And no one died then even when he did let rip with the bullets!"

"But someone could have Duck! We all had to risk our lives making sure you and the hostage were still alive! If you haven't have forgotten, not everyone has quantum teleportation to get away nor do they all have regenerative healing powers!" Lexi joined in although she didn't sound as angry as Ace was at present.

"Uh, don't superheroes take risks like that anyway?" Duck glanced at the rabbit before Ace continued with his onslaught.

"Yes but not to the extent where they needed to get themselves killed!"

"Uh, We've dealt with Viking robots, rock monsters, super villains with powers beyond our imaginations and we destroyed a giant asteroid from out of space!" The mallard counted on his fingers before gesturing to everyone in the room. "If you haven't noticed this by now, we're all still alive after all the hell we've been through! We even managed to walk away from a black hole that Black Velvet lady got sucked into!"

"All I'm saying Duck is that you can't keep taking these dangerous risks and expect everything to be okay because you'll never know when one day, we could end up in a dilemma where we can't escape alive no matter what we try to do to survive!"

"Do you think I don't know that!?" The mallard finally shouted. That jolted the others into an eye widening surprise while Ace maintained the frown. For a few seconds silence hung in the air before Tech finally stepped forward and cleared his throat.

"Normally I don't want to interject into arguments but I have to ask you something Duck; is there something bothering you?" The green and black uniformed coyote said calmly. Duck snapped his gaze at the scientist.

"I'm perfectly fine! What makes you say that?" He retorted.

"Well apart from your increased agitation, your outburst just now intrigues me. 'Do you think I don't know that?' Why did you say that when you testified earlier that everything usually goes our way on missions? I just find that very odd." Tech explained.

"Great, the coyote becomes a psychologist," Duck snorted sarcastically and gestured to a purple couch. "Why don't I lie down and tell you my miserable life story while you're at it?"

"Duck, Tech was only trying to help and I'm starting to believe there is something wrong with you," Lexi placed her hands on her hips. "You're acting like a real jerk."

"Yawn! As if I haven't heard that one before," The mallard pretended to be bored by the insult before a scowl appeared on his face. "Now if you don't mind, I'm going to take a long walk and I'm definitely coming back late." He declared before vanishing in front of his teammate's eyes. Ace then turned and walked away from the rest of the group towards the elevator before he stopped halfway.

"I'm gonna go and beat some hologram grunts up. Anyone's welcome to join me if they share my lust for kicking ass," the hare glanced back at the remaining Loonatics before he stepped inside the elevator. After the door slid shut and took him down, Tech left the other three Loonatics and headed for his laboratory. Rev, Lexi and Slam gave each other confused looks before they disbanded to their own devices.

!

The next morning was strangely quiet but the tension from yesterday's argument dwelled in the atmosphere. Even Rev's chirpy chatter didn't fill the silence, save for the Foley sounds of clinking crockery and cutlery and the occasional munch and slurp from Slam's breakfast feast.

Lexi sat at the table and bit into a small amount of toast. To be honest, she didn't feel like eating but she didn't want anyone to worry if they thought she starved herself. She glanced at Tech who seemed to be watching something on his laptop but didn't ask. However, Lexi worried more about the whereabouts of Ace and Duck. Ever since the argument from yesterday, no one had seen them return even when everyone had gone to bed. She hoped Ace hadn't exhausted himself from over-doing his aggressive destruction of whatever enemies he decided to destroy as well as she hoped Duck didn't stay out so late that he lost some hours of sleep. From what her sensitive ears had detected, there was no sign of Duck in the building. They did however sense Ace and as if on cue, he entered the room with a yawn and stretched his arms. It was then that Tech suddenly perked up and called, "Hey guys! I think you should come and see this!"

The rest of the teammates surrounded the coyote and stared at the monitor of the laptop from what appeared to be a shot of the outside of a hospital with metallic walls. "Tech, what's this?" Ace asked curiously.

"Well remember when I asked Duck what was wrong and he refused to answer? I decided to see if I could find the cause to his behavior, so I created a camera and microphone device and had Rev plant it on the jacket Duck usually wears. It's the size of the smallest fingernail on the average human hand so there's no way he'd be able to find it."

"In other words, you bugged him?" Lexi looked at Tech.

"How he reacted to Ace saying there maybe a time when we may not be able to escape a situation alive had been bothering me since yesterday and as a scientist, I want to know why," The coyote shrugged his shoulders before turning to the screen again. "Okay, he's going into the hospital. Acmetropolis Cancer Hospital?""

"Maybe he has a sick relative and the stress of that is making him act more reckless than usual," Rev offered before the team listened to a conversation between Duck and female receptionist with a black hair in a bob style.

"_The name's Danger Duck. I have an appointment with Doctor Marley at 9am."_

"_Ah! Danger Duck! It's an honor to see you in person even if it is in unpleasant circumstances but I must ask for your real name please."_

_Duck let out an exhale before saying with a hint of embarrassment, "Daniel Duck."_

_The receptionist briefly scanned her computer screen until she found the mallard's name._

"_Yes, here you are. Please take a seat. Doctor Marley will be with you in just a moment."_

As Duck thanked the woman and took his seat, the rest of the Loonatics gave each other puzzled looks.

"Wait, he's going in for a check up?" Ace frowned perplexed at what was currently played.

Lexi remembered what Tech said about the building specializing in cancer treatment and suddenly became concerned. "You don't think…?" Before anyone could answer her question, a man in a white doctor's jacket (who they assumed was Doctor Marley) appeared before Duck and signaled him to follow him to his office. The rest of the Loonatics watched with baited breaths as they both entered a pastel blue walled room with a light grey laminate floor and sat on transparent plastic chairs.

"_Mr Duck-"_

"_Please, call me Danger Duck."_

"He still insists on being called Danger Duck at this type of setting?" Lexi rolled her eyes before the doctor spoke.

"_Um… well Danger Duck, I have the results for the tests done on the lump inside the bone marrow tissue."_

"_And?"_

_The doctor leaned over his desk and threaded his fingers together. He let out a sigh before he gave an intense stare at Duck, although to the rest of the Loonatics, he was staring at them._

"_I regret to inform you that the myeloma*__cancer has returned. I'm so sorry Danger Duck."_

_There was a long pause from the mallard before he uttered, "And there's nothing else that can be done?"_

_The doctor shook his head. "I'm sorry but since it's returned, it's unlikely that you'd be able to beat it this time around. I sincerely cannot apologize to you enough."_

Upon hearing those earth shattering words, the five Loonatics stared at the monitor in horror, unable to say or do anything that was appropriate for what was just revealed to them.

!

*** = Myeloma ****is a type of bone marrow cancer, which affects the plasma cells (a type of blood cell) inside the spongy tissue at the centre of some bones.**

!

**Hey guys! Long time no see! I've been incredibly busy at my new job as well as writing other fan fics and then abandoning them so chances are, chapters will be coming out slowly.**

**Anyways, this idea popped into my head after reading lots of Danger Duck fan fics and I wanted to try and write a story with a heart-rending story line. Cancer is a difficult subject to deal with since everyone knows at least one person, whomever they may be, who has either had cancer or has a relative who's suffering with it. I lost my great aunt to stomach cancer so I hope I do this story and the subject justice.**


	2. Silence, Storm, Silence

Duck was afraid it would return, especially after the meteor crash in 2772. He made sure to go to every single one of his check ups at the hospital without fail and without any of the other Loonatics knowing. Danger Duck was a superhero after all; they never worried about getting illnesses because they're invincible right? Duck clicked his tongue at the thought as he ambled past other pedestrians in the city street. Who was he kidding? After Tech pointed out his reaction to the possibility of no means of escape from death, he itched to get to the hospital and know the results.

Now he knew it was bad news. Duck didn't want to return to the rest of the Loonatics and be interrogated on where he went and what he got up to, but where else was his bed to crash into after being told his death was imminent?

The walk to headquarters was nothing more than a blur of the metropolis of skyscrapers and people. The mallard was pretty much in autopilot for the whole trip from the hospital and plotted inside the elevator on how he could keep his ailment a secret from the others. The last thing he wanted was a pity party after Ace scolded him for his so called reckless behavior yesterday. The elevator stopped on the floor of the Loonatic's residence as he stepped out of it and ignored the welcome from the elevator speakers.

Duck locked his gaze on a fidgeting Lexi sat on the purple couch. Her green eyes flicked up to him once more before she uttered, "Hey Duck", her smile disappeared as quickly as it appeared. The mallard raised an eyebrow of her strange greeting before he turned his attention to the glass table surrounded by Slam, Tech and Rev. They also sat in their black and violet plastic chairs nervously as they each gave Duck succinct glances. Finally the bird found Ace who emerged from another room. Something was seriously wrong with everyone and Duck didn't like it so he put on his bravado hoping his teammates would snap out of their despondent states.

"What's going? Why's everyone looking so glum? Did something happen while I was gone?"

Ace sauntered to the couch Lexi fretted her fingers on. "What are you saying? Nothing's wrong as far as we're concerned."

Duck knew from the hare's subdued expression that was a lie. "Ace, I may not be as clever as Tech but it doesn't take a super genius to know you're hiding something. Is there something you guys know that I don't?"

It was that moment that Rev immediately shot up from his seat while focusing on the spot on the table in front of him. "I'm sorry guys! I can't keep this from Duck anymore!" He exclaimed.

"Keep what from me? What's going on?" The mallard frowned in a perplexed manner.

"Rev, sit down," Tech gave Rev a frown with the warning but was ignored as the red and black uniformed avian stepped away from the table and exposed his remorseful face to Duck.

"I'm sorry Duck. We just…" His hands squeezed into fists as he held back his emotions. "I can't believe you of all people have to be burdened with cancer…"

Upon the mention of the last word, Duck's eyes widened in terror. "How did you know? Who told you? That's breaking patient confidentiality!"

No one else spoke for a few seconds before Lexi spoke up. "We… we kind of spied on you. We figured Tech had a point about something being wrong with you and… we were worried about you." She looked away and brushed her blonde fringe away from her eyes. The explanation only angered Duck even more.

"You all _spied_ on me? How could you!? What I do on my own is none of your business!" His fingers resembled claws as if he readied himself to strangle someone.

"We're your friends Duck! We just couldn't ignore you while you're suffering like this," Lexi flinched at the mallard's temper and held her arm with one hand.

"I'm not suffering thank you very much! I'm perfectly fine!" Duck retorted and threw his arm to the side. "I appreciate the concern but I don't need your sympathy or pity!"

"Duck, we're just trying to help you. You don't have to be aggressive about it," Ace interrupted.

"I don't need anyone's help either!" The mallard screamed, jolting Lexi and Rev while everyone else stared at him in dismay. "I've been good in the past without crying on anyone's shoulder on how no one respects me or tells me I'm the worst at this and that and how I should just give up on myself! It's not like I've never heard it all before!" He turned his thumb onto himself and jabbed his chest with it. "I'm Danger Duck for crying out loud! Danger Duck laughs in the face of a dumb disease like cancer! Ha ha ha ha ha ha!" He placed his hands on his waist and belly laughed which put more frightened expressions on the other's faces than reassured them. Once Duck stopped his laughter, he put the frown back on his face. "Like I said, what I do is none of your business so I'd appreciate it if you all just leave me alone. If you're going to say how terrible you feel about me having a year at best and a few months at worst left to live then forget it!" The mallard stomped towards the elevator just as he did yesterday and turned to the team with spite on his face. "You know it's funny how none of you guys gave a shit about me until you all found out I was going to die! You're all just despicable!"

As soon as Duck slammed the elevator button to go down, the doors hissed closed. Once again there was a long moment of silence before Lexi burst into tears and marched as fast as she could to her bedroom. Another shush from the mechanical door caused another wave of quietness in the room. Seeing how no one else wanted to say anything Tech retired to his laboratory, leaving Slam to wander elsewhere. Guilt began to crawl into Ace especially when he saw Rev hugging himself. Whether he knew he was doing it the hare wasn't sure but the least he can do was bring Rev back to reality.

"Hey Rev, you okay there?" He asked to which the roadrunner perked his head up and faced the leader with a small smile on his beak.

"I'm okay. Just a little shaken that's all," Rev murmured before adding, "If it's all right with you, I wanna be on my own for a little while."

Ace hesitated for a moment before he nodded. "Sure."

Rev gave the hare a quiet thanks before the leader found himself alone in the living room, contemplating on how he was going to deal with the situation.

!

**I think I made Duck sound a little too aggressive towards the others but I figured he'd act that way because he's such a prideful guy. He's too proud of himself to want people to know what he's gone or is going through. **

**Anyways, review and fave! It's always appreciated!**


	3. Unfair Sentence

Working on gadgets was Tech's coping mechanism for any obstacle: mental and physical. Despite following the 'ostrich burying its head in the sand' analogy, at least he felt like he had some degree of control over a bad situation. His mind solely focused on the invention in front of him as he twisted the screw into it. As much as he wanted to be alone, he stopped what he was doing and raised his head.

"Rev, I know you're there so just come in," he called but when he turned around in his seat, no roadrunner stood at the doorframe. Tech expected Rev to come to him of all people when he worried about something. To think he had waited for him to come in and gush out his woes. As much as it annoyed him when his impeccable timing always occurred when he worked on something important, right now he needed the company. With a sigh, Tech placed the tool and gadget on the table and left his lab in search for the bird.

At first he thought it pointless because Rev went out for one of his afternoon runs (unless some emergency occurred) but the memories from previous times suggested that Rev was less active if there was something wrong with him. That meant he was somewhere in the headquarters. The first place Tech figured he would be was his bedroom but strangely he didn't find the despondent roadrunner on the bed.

The coyote asked of Rev's whereabouts from whomever he happened to see but no one knew. It was one of those times when Tech wished he either had GPS powers or a tracker, it would have saved him a lot of time. Fortunately for the canine, he was Rev's best friend and best friends probably knew each other better than they did themselves. He didn't need his detective skills to know where the last place in the headquarters he'd find the bird and began to approach the door at the end of the hallway. Tech peered over his shoulders and ensured no one else watched him before he advanced through the door that opened with a mechanical hiss.

Each step echoed as the scientist climbed the dimly lit stairs. Thankfully they weren't that long or he would have felt tired and turned back, which was something he didn't want to do because he could sense the sadness emanating from the roadrunner.

Finally, Tech felt a cool breeze as he stepped through another automatic door way and there he locked eyes on the young red and black uniformed bird. Since Rev gazed over the city undisturbed, Tech figured he was either in deep thought or he must have learnt to shut off his GPS power. The last thing the roadrunner needed was information about people's whereabouts and the current environment overwhelming his mind like it did when he first received his powers. That was what Tech thought anyway as he took a few steps closer to his friend.

"So this is where you've been hiding," his voice turned Rev's head to the coyote before his face softened back to his subdued expression.

"Hey Tech," He greeted as the green and black uniformed coyote stood next to the roadrunner and hunched over the black balcony fence and stared at the horizon over the skyscrapers.

"So… how are you holding up?" He began and glanced at Rev who also watched over the skyscrapers. He knew asking him the most stupid question in a penitent situation would only dampen the mood but as a friend, he needed to know where Rev's feelings lied. The bird didn't drift his eyes away from the scene in front of him.

"Well I'm certainly not okay but it could be worse. I could be Duck." He answered at a surprisingly coherent speed than Tech was already used to. Rev must be depressed.

"Yeah. From the way he acted, you'd think there'd be nothing wrong with him," Tech turned to Acmetropolis once more after the calm statement. Rev then followed with an exclamation.

"But why does he do that!?" He threw his hands in front of him. "Even if he's sick, he refuses to admit it until he collapses or something! It's like he doesn't know he has limits! He doesn't know when to admit he's sick!"

Not everyone knew this but Tech analyses people's behavior (sometimes out of fun) and so far, he'd been accurate most of the time but with Duck (and maybe everyone else in the team) it was a little more personal. Throughout his school, college and university life, his peers had called him all kinds of terrible things whether it was because of his species or they were envious about his intelligence and want to bring him down to their level. He obviously ignored them although there were times where it was hard to restrain urges of snapping and lashing out on them. Duck never talked about his school life but Tech could imagine it was horrible or possibly worse. After all, there were some behavioral traits that looked abnormal to the average person like his constant boasts about being a great superhero and how the Robo Amigo exposed the fact that Duck purchased the toy after the incident with Rev's brother and the bio-tech parasite. Sure it was a fad amongst adults and children alike and although Tech had a good idea why the mallard had it, he assumed he wanted to join the bandwagon like everyone else.

However thinking about it more, Duck received more criticisms and negative feedback than anything positive when he's been around him. The waterfowl didn't have the best start in life either; he lived in a children's care home so he had to deal with not knowing why he didn't have any parents as well as rejection from the potential parents before a married couple finally adopted him. Denunciation seemed to follow the mallard everywhere because no matter how much he strived for attention, people either ignored him or remarked on how foolish he looked. Tech knew how much denial hurt from his experience with even the university lecturers claiming he was simply mad. To be fair, the coyote only installed the self-destruct button in case another incident similar to Mallory's intelligence draining plot occurred so that was on purpose. Duck however, never asked to live in an adoption centre and contemplate the circumstances of his parent's disappearance and he certainly didn't embrace the idea of constantly being an outsider to the other children at school. In Tech's conclusion, Duck had always been or at least he thought he was alone.

"I think it's because he has so much pride in himself," the coyote began as he hung his hands over the balcony rail. "Maybe it's because he's afraid that if he shows any sign of weakness, people will laugh at him or something. You know how he puts on all the bravado claiming he's the best thing since sliced bread? That's probably a coping mechanism he's developed over some years most likely."

Rev fidgeted with his fingers and glanced at Tech through the corner of his emerald eyes. "Actually, that seems logical. We don't always treat Duck with the most respect and all."

"That's something he put upon himself but to be fair, it's not always his fault," Tech straightened his posture and held onto the balcony rail while he stilled gazed at the cityscape. "He's probably so used to pretending not to care about others feelings that it's simply become a part of his psyche." There was a long pause in the conversation. Neither one spoke until Tech turned to Rev sniffing besides him. The bird's neck drooped so low, he almost hid the tears running down his feathery cheeks and his clenched hands trembled around the railing. Normally Tech wouldn't instigate in showing any form of physical affection but in this case, he had to give him some kind of comfort. Before he could though, Rev wrapped his arms around the coyote's shoulders and sobbed into him. Tech's body tensed at the sudden movement but didn't push the bird off like he generally would under ordinary circumstances.

"Duck didn't choose this at all! He would have never asked to carry a horrible disease! It's not fair! It's not fair at all!" He wailed before he broke into more choked sobs.

Tech took a deep breath to control his emotions and slowly bought his arms to hold the shivering roadrunner. "I know. It's not fair at all…" he murmured and stared listlessly at the bustling city and it's skyscrapers.


End file.
